Top 160 Luc de Clapiers Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “The character of false wit is that of appearing to depend only upon reason.”

— Luc de Clapiers

102. “As it is natural to believe many things without proof, so, despite all proof, is it natural to disbelieve others.”

— Luc de Clapiers

103. “The law cannot equalize mankind in spite of nature.”

— Luc de Clapiers

104. “No one likes to be pitied for his faults.”

— Luc de Clapiers

105. “Learn to overrule minor interest in favor of great ones, and generously to do all the good the heart prompts; a man is never injured by acting virtuously.”

— Luc de Clapiers

106. “You must rouse into people’s consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise their character.”

— Luc de Clapiers

107. “It is easier to say new things than to reconcile those which have already been said.”

— Luc de Clapiers

108. “We should expect the best and the worst from mankind as from the weather.”

— Luc de Clapiers

109. “Our virtues are dearer to us the more we have had to suffer for them. It is the same with our children. All profound affection admits a sacrifice.”

— Luc de Clapiers

110. “A liar is a man who does now know how to deceive, a flatterer one who only deceives fools: he who knows how to make skilful use of the truth, and understands its eloquence, can alone pride himself in cleverness.”

— Luc de Clapiers

111. “It is difficult to esteem a man as highly as he would wish.”

— Luc de Clapiers

112. “Some are born to invent, others to embellish; but the gilder attracts more attention than the architect.”

— Luc de Clapiers

113. “Men despise great projects when they do not feel themselves capable of great successes.”

— Luc de Clapiers

114. “In order to do great things, it is necessary to live as if one was never to die.”

— Luc de Clapiers

115. “Whoever has seen the masked at a ball dance amicably together, and take hold of hands without knowing each other, leaving the next moment to meet no more, can form an idea of the world.”

— Luc de Clapiers

116. “The usual pretext of those who make others unhappy is that they do it for their own good.”

— Luc de Clapiers

117. “All grand thoughts come from the heart.”

— Luc de Clapiers

118. “Servitude debases men to the point where they end up liking it.”

— Luc de Clapiers

119. “In order to protect himself from force, man was obliged to submit to justice. Justice or force: he was compelled to choose between the two masters, so little are we made to be independent.”

— Luc de Clapiers

120. “One can not be just if one is not humane.”

— Luc de Clapiers

121. “I do not approve the maxim which desires a man to know a little of everything. Superficial knowledge, knowledge without principles, is almost always useless and sometimes harmful knowledge.”

— Luc de Clapiers

122. “We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.”

— Luc de Clapiers

123. “The best things are the most common.”

— Luc de Clapiers

124. “The maxim that men are not to be praised before their death was invented by envy and too lightly adopted by philosophers.”

— Luc de Clapiers

125. “Despair puts the last touch not only to our misery but also to our weakness.”

— Luc de Clapiers

126. “If it is true that vice can never be done away with, the science of government consists of making it contribute to the public good.”

— Luc de Clapiers

127. “In a way, the main fault of all books is that they are too long.”

— Luc de Clapiers

128. “If virtue were its own reward, it would no longer be a human quality, but supernatural.”

— Luc de Clapiers

129. “Necessity embitters the evils which it cannot cure.”

— Luc de Clapiers

130. “Whatever affection we have for our friends or relations, the happiness of others never suffices for our own.”

— Luc de Clapiers

131. “It is unjust to exact that men shall do out of deference to our advice what they have no desire to do for themselves.”

— Luc de Clapiers

132. “A new principle is an inexhaustible source of new views.”

— Luc de Clapiers

133. “There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything.”

— Luc de Clapiers

134. “Men crowd into honorable careers without other vocation than their vanity, or at best their love of fame.”

— Luc de Clapiers

135. “Men are not to be judged by what they do not know, but by what they know, and by the manner in which they know it.”

— Luc de Clapiers

136. “One promises much, to avoid giving little.”

— Luc de Clapiers

137. “Mediocre men sometimes fear great office, and when they do not aim at it, or when they refuse it, all that is to be concluded is that they are aware of their mediocrity.”

— Luc de Clapiers

138. “The mind reaches great heights only by spurts.”

— Luc de Clapiers

139. “We often quarrel with the unfortunate to get rid of pitying them.”

— Luc de Clapiers

140. “If our friends do us a service, we think they owe it to us by their title of friend. We never think that they do not owe us their friendship.”

— Luc de Clapiers

141. “All erroneous ideas would perish of their own accord if given clear expression.”

— Luc de Clapiers

142. “Fools do not understand men of intelligence.”

— Luc de Clapiers

143. “If passion sometimes counsels greater boldness than does reflection, it gives more strength to execute it.”

— Luc de Clapiers

144. “The falsest of all philosophies is that which, under the pretext of delivering men from the embarrassment of their passions, counsels idleness and the abandonment and neglect of themselves.”

— Luc de Clapiers

145. “A man can hardly be said to have made a fortune if he does not know how to enjoy it.”

— Luc de Clapiers

146. “We can console ourselves for not having great talents as we console ourselves for not having great places. We can be above both in our hearts.”

— Luc de Clapiers

147. “We are almost always guilty of the hate we encounter.”

— Luc de Clapiers

148. “Men dissimulate their dearest, most constant, and most virtuous inclination from weakness and a fear of being condemned.”

— Luc de Clapiers

149. “Glory fills the world with virtue, and, like a beneficent sun, covers the whole earth with flowers and with fruits.”

— Luc de Clapiers

150. “When we are sick our virtues and our vices are in abeyance.”

— Luc de Clapiers